First Penn State-Sandusky lawsuit is filed

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abused a boy more than 100 times and threatened to harm his family to keep him quiet, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by a new accuser who is not part of the criminal case.

The 29-year-old, identified only as John Doe, had never told anyone about the abuse he claims he suffered until Sandusky was charged this month with abusing other boys. His lawyer said he filed a complaint with law enforcement on Tuesday. He became the first plaintiff to file suit in the Penn State child sex abuse scandal a day later.

The lawsuit claims Sandusky abused the boy from 1992, when the boy was 10, until 1996 in encounters at the coach’s State College home, in a Penn State locker room and on trips, including to a bowl game. The account echoes a grand jury’s description of trips, gifts and attention lavished on other boys.

“I am hurting and have been for a long time because of what happened, but feel now even more tormented that I have learned of so many other kids were abused after me,” the plaintiff said in a handwritten statement his lawyer read aloud at a news conference.

The lawsuit seeks tens of thousands of dollars and names Sandusky, the university and Sandusky’s The Second Mile charity as defendants. The man says he knew the coach through the charity, which Sandusky founded in 1977, ostensibly to help disadvantaged children in central Pennsylvania.

His lawyer, Jeff Anderson, said he believes Sandusky was a predator who could not control his sexual impulses toward children. He harshly criticized officials at Penn State and The Second Mile who failed to report their suspicions.